‘Drone Didi’: 15K drones for SHGs
Posts report an initiative nicknamed ‘Namo Drone Didi’ aiming to put roughly 15,000 drones into the hands of women’s self‑help groups for tasks like disease detection and precision spraying ( ). The social coverage frames the scheme as an AI-and-drone push to raise farm productivity by automating monitoring and targeted inputs (x.com).
India’s government has approved a scheme to put 15,000 agricultural drones in the hands of women’s self-help groups by 2025-26, with public funding of 12.61 billion rupees. (pib.gov.in) The Union Cabinet cleared the plan on November 29, 2023. The Agriculture Ministry later said the drones would be provided as a central sector scheme for women’s groups linked to Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission. (pib.gov.in, pib.gov.in) The scheme is built around rental services, not free personal use. Selected women’s groups are meant to use the drones for farm work such as spraying liquid fertilizers and pesticides for nearby farmers. (pib.gov.in) The money is structured as a subsidy. The government said it will cover 80% of the drone package cost, up to 800,000 rupees, and groups can borrow the balance under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund with a 3% interest subvention. (pib.gov.in) Training is part of the package. One member of each self-help group gets 15 days of drone pilot training, and another member or family member gets five days of drone assistant training. (pib.gov.in) The government has pitched the program as a rural livelihoods plan as much as a farm technology plan. A November 2024 official note said each selected group is expected to earn at least 100,000 rupees in additional annual income from drone services. (pib.gov.in) The women’s groups come from a much larger network. As of July 22, 2025, the Rural Development Ministry said Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission had mobilized 10.05 crore rural women into more than 90.90 lakh self-help groups. (pib.gov.in) Rollout has already started, but official updates have not always used the same target number. Government statements in 2024 referred at times to 14,500 selected groups, while the Cabinet decision and later ministry replies described the scheme as covering 15,000 drones. (pib.gov.in, pib.gov.in) The Agriculture Ministry said fertilizer companies distributed 1,094 drones to self-help groups in 2023-24 using their own resources, including 500 under the scheme. In a February 13, 2026 reply, the ministry said the Namo Drone Didi program remained approved through 2025-26 with the same 12.61 billion rupee outlay. (pib.gov.in, pib.gov.in) The promise is simple: turn women’s collectives into local drone service businesses, then use those machines to spray fields faster and with more targeted inputs than manual methods. The test over the next year is whether enough groups can train pilots, finance the balance cost, and find steady demand from farmers. (pib.gov.in, pib.gov.in)
